Rating: 4.5/5
Criterion Challenge 2023 | 48/52 | 1990s
You want to give up the taste of cherries? Don't. I'm your friend. I'm begging you.
Mr. Badii drives around Tehran, looking for someone to do a job. Several folks approach his car, eager to do labor for him, but he dismisses them.
Through the movie, we see Mr. Badii pick up three men: a Kurdish soldier, an Afghani seminary student, and an Azeri taxidermist. In a parable-like structure, the first two reject his offer for personal reasons. The third accepts, but not without speaking his mind.
To each, Mr. Badii shows a hole. The rules are simple: the person will return at 6 AM tomorrow. He calls out for Mr. Badii. If Mr. Badii replies, pull him out of the hole. If he doesn’t, bury him. Regardless, he gets 200,000 tomans.
The world isn't the way you see it. You have to change your outlook and change the world.
After watching Kiarostami’s Certified Copy, I came to this film with a sense of his style. He enjoys obscuring and distancing the subjects, asking what drives the movie forward without a definitive answer.
The film has a saffron tint. West Asia used saffron as a dye and as a treatment for melancholy. As the sun sets, it loses its yellowness. It turns reddish hues mixed with yellow. The red flowers. The red berries on the tree.
When inside the car, the camera remains fixed on Homayoun Ershadi, who plays Mr. Badii.
When the camera moves outside, it lets the car go into the distance, watching it weave through the countryside.
It is a reminder that we can empathize with and understand Mr. Badii and his condition, but we cannot feel the pain he is experiencing.
When the film ends, we don’t know Mr. Badii’s choice. Because the movie is not concerned with his choice — it’s yours. You are the person whose pain no one else knows. You are the one who hears these arguments for and against suicide. And you are the one who makes the choice.
The film concludes with behind-the-scenes camcorder footage of its production. Kiarostami gives us his taste of cherries — that which inspires him to keep living.